‘Sorry, yes.’ He turned away. ‘Sorry.’

‘So, what have you come here for? If you want to see your father, which of course you have every right to do, it’s really best to meet him in town, for tea or something, you know? Or at least you could make an appointment, not just turn up. We’ve only five minutes ago got the twins off, they’ve been yelling for hours. I don’t know. Have they got tummy ache or something? Anyway, what are you dressed like that for, where’s your coat?’ She headed out of the room, not waiting for Olivia to reply. ‘If you want a drink or anything, look in the fridge.’

The kitchen was like Madison, shiny, gleaming, new – and a tip, strewn with bottle steriliser, bottles, baskets of baby clothes and towels, milk, three or four dirty mugs, half a loaf on a plate, some bananas. How could her dad live in this, when he was the fussiest man on the planet, always wiping down surfaces and putting things away, in a cupboard, in a drawer, in the bin? There was a mop and bucket in the middle of the floor.

‘Have you come to ask Jeff for money? I bet you have, and it’s nothing to do with me, only we’re not that good at the moment, reorganisation at work so he’s had a bit of a demotion, the twins cost a bloody fortune, and God knows what it will be like later, shoes and all that, so don’t expect much, he gives your mother money already, that ought to do you.’

Her father came through with a large box of nappies, half carrying, half pushing it. ‘Jeez, Madison, how many nappies do they get through?’

‘Hundreds, shitty little things.’ She laughed and her earrings glittered.

‘Oli, are you having anything? I’ll make some tea actually. You want tea, sweetheart?’

Madison sat down at the kitchen table and pulled a packet of chocolate digestives towards her. ‘Thanks.’

When he had the kettle on, Jeff looked at a baby monitor, like a mini television screen, with a microphone and a control panel. It showed a white-grey picture of a room with two cribs pushed close together. Two bodies, one twisting over and back, the other still.

Olivia watched her father watch the babies, peering at them with such close attention, such concern. Love. Yes.

‘Can I see them?’

‘Christ no, you go up there and that’ll be that, two hours of screaming.’

‘Why do they do that? Scream, I mean?’

‘God knows. The health visitor woman said colic or wind, I don’t know. I think they’re just playing up.’

‘Of course they don’t, they’re far too young to know how to do that, they just haven’t settled yet,’ Jeff said, without looking away from the monitor.